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Kimi
Raikkonen will start
tomorrow’s Belgian Grand
Prix from the outside of Row
three, having set the sixth
fastest time in Q3, while
Luca Badoer unfortunately
repeats his Valencia
qualifying to start last. In
the Italian’s defence, he
has shown a distinct
improvement in actual
performance terms this
weekend.
Even by the
standards of this season,
that has seen so many
unexpected twists and turns,
this afternoon’s session
produced some amazing
results. The top three
places on the grid are all
occupied by three drivers
whose F1 future for next
season is currently in
doubt, if one is to believe
paddock rumour. If the
Italian Ferrari team’s
result did not live up to
expectations, the actual
front row is an all-Italian
affair, with Giancarlo
Fisichella astonishing the
entire paddock, as he
secured pole position for
Force India. Naturally,
there’s much speculation
that “Fisico” hasn’t got
much “juice” in the tank.
However, both he and
team-mate, Adrian Sutil
(11th today) have looked
quite competitive all
weekend. Alongside him is
Jarno Trulli for Toyota,
with third place going to
the BMW of Nick Heidfeld.
The winner in Valencia last Sunday, Rubens Barrichello,
completes the second row for Brawn. Raikkonen has the BMW of
Robert Kubica in fifth place
alongside him.
Other front
runners in the championship
had a difficult day. The two
Red Bulls of Sebastian
Vettel and Mark Webber are
in eighth and ninth, Lewis
Hamilton could do no better
than twelfth for
McLaren-Mercedes, while
championship leader Jenson
Button is way down in
fourteenth spot.
Such an
unusual looking grid should
theoretically produce an
interesting race, as the
more usual contenders for
victory try and force their
way to the front. Here at
Spa, the sweeping turns and
long straights lend
themselves to overtaking and
in Kimi and Luca’s case,
they will be hoping to
benefit from the added power
of the KERS system, which
should be very useful at
such a fast track. Forty
four laps of
Spa-Francorchamps will
hopefully produce one of the
most exciting races of the
year so far.
“One could certainly say the starting
grid order is unexpected,” said Stefano
Domenicali. “As we have already seen
several times this season, the pecking
order between the teams can change
really suddenly from one race to the
next. For our part, we would have liked
to be a little bit higher up with Kimi,
but all the same, we are in a position
that will allow us to fight for a podium
finish, especially when looking at the
F60’s performance over a long run. As
for Luca, once again we could see an
improvement in his performance, but
unfortunately, it was not enough to
avoid him ending up last on the grid
again.”
Luca Badoer: “I’m
not happy, because this morning, at the
end of free practice, I had hoped to
make it through to Q2. Unfortunately,
partly because of traffic and partly
because of a few small problems, I
didn’t manage to put together a perfect
lap. I was counting on doing so on my
final run, but there was the incident
with Vettel which then led to me going
off the track and that put an end to my
qualifying. I have made another step
forward in terms of performance, but
it’s still not enough: for me the
hardest thing is getting into a rhythm
and finding the limits of the car.
Unfortunately, there’s no opportunity to
do the testing that would put that
right. I am sure that tomorrow, I will
perform better than I did in the
Valencia race. I will try and do my
best.”
Kimi Raikkonen:
“Of course I would have preferred to
have started from further up the grid,
but I think we did our best today. We
knew it would be hard to be at the
front, but all the same, this is a good
position, especially as the gaps between
the front runners are pretty tight. With
more fuel on board, the car handles
better than on a light load and that was
the case again in this qualifying
session. Such an unusual grid makes it
even harder to make any predictions for
tomorrow and we will have to make the
most of any opportunities that present
themselves. The final outcome will
depend a lot on the first two corners
after the start. The fact the car
handles differently at various sections
of the track can be explained by the
lack of aerodynamic downforce we have
this season.”
Chris Dyer: “We
are a bit disappointed because, after
yesterday’s showing, we expected a
better result. Sixth place for Kimi must
be assessed in the light of the
different fuel loads of all the cars in
the top ten. We believe we have come up
with a good strategy and, given the
car’s performance over a long run, we
expect that, yet again, we can fight for
a place on the podium. As for Luca,
everyone can see that, day by day, his
performance level is improving:
unfortunately, it is not yet at a
sufficient level to see him through at
least to Q2.” Qualifying session
Luca Badoer: 20th 1.46.957 11 laps
Kimi Raikkonen: 6th 1.46.633 6 laps
Chassis: L. Badoer 280, K. Raikkonen
279
Weather: air temperature 16/19 °C,
track temperature 20/25 °C, partially cloudy. |
